| Changes from FY 2010-11 Year-to-Date: | |
| Items Included by the Senate and House | |
| 1. Eliminate Certain State Education Reform Activities. Governor proposed to eliminate certain activities that are part of the Race to the Top education reforms, enacted in early 2010. Specifically, the Governor eliminated the $1.4 million GF/GP State Reform/Redesign Office; proposed to rent an online testing platform rather than developing one (savings of $500,000 GF/GP), and eliminated the basic instructional supplies hotline and appeals process (savings of $76,000 GF/GP). Senate and House concurred only with the elimination of the $500,000 for development of an online testing platform and basic instructional supplies hotlines (savings of $576,000 GF/GP), and restored $1.3 million of the proposed $1.4 million reduction. | (691,000) |
| 2. Early Retirement GF/GP Savings. Governor and Senate reduced $370,900 GF/GP in the budget attributable to employees who retired under the retirement incentive of 2010. | (370,900) |
| 3. Removal of Excess Authorization. Governor and Senate eliminated excess funding authorization of more than $6.0 million, most of which was excess Federal authorization. | (6,012,500) |
| 4. Removal of One-Time Cost for Database Rewrite. Governor and Senate eliminated $5.0 million in Federal funding used to establish a database that can link teachers with student achievement data. This database was one of the required education reforms. | (5,000,000) |
| 5. Scholarships for the Blind. Private donations were increased $110,000. | 110,000 |
| 6. Economic Adjustments. Economics totaling $1,556,800 Gross, $401,000 GF/GP were included in the recommendation. | 1,556,800 |
| Conference Agreement on Items of Difference | |
| 7. State Aid to Library Payments. Conference decreased State Aid to Library payments $304,300 GF/GP to $5,445,700. The School Aid budget will include $1,304,300 for this purpose, meaning a total of $6,750,000 will be appropriated for State Aid to Library payments. The total payment to libraries (when compared to FY 2010-11) will be $6,750,000, or $500,000 less than in FY 2010-11. Governor had proposed a reduction of $3.8 million total for these payments. | (304,300) |
| 8. Michigan eLibrary (MeL). Conference concurred with House and Governor to include a new $950,000 GF/GP appropriation for MeL to hold libraries harmless from declines in anticipated Federal support of the Michigan eLibrary. | 950,000 |
| 9. Book Distribution Centers. Senate funded Book Distribution Centers at $50,000 GF/GP, but Conference did not include this funding. | 0 |
| 10. Operational Cuts throughout Budget. Conference did not include Senate's $816,700 in operational cuts throughout various lines in the budget. | 0 |
| Total Changes | ($9,646,900) |
| FY 2011-12 Conference Report Gross Appropriation | $117,313,000 |
| Changes from FY 2010-11 Year to Date: |
| Items Included by the Senate and House |
| 1. "Standard Boilerplate". Governor proposed to eliminate several sections of "standard" boilerplate that were consistent among departmental budgets. These include: 204 (civil service commission billing); 209 (DIT user charges); 212 (Buy American/Buy Michigan); 213 (hiring freeze); 214 (out-of-state travel); 215 (out-of-state travel limitations; 216 (employees who communicate with Legislature); 217 (depressed and deprived communities); 220 (providing data in a timely manner); 221 (hiring of legal services); and, 226 (reporting on GF/GP lapse). Senate and House retained all sections. Conference did not include Section 213 (hiring freeze). |
| 2. Other Sections. Governor proposed to eliminate the following sections specific to the Department of Education budget: 206 (providing State Board of Education agendas and supporting documents to budget office and fiscal agencies); 208 (requiring districts to maintain complete personnel records); 211 (appeal of AYP status); 225 (investigation and report of pupil membership fraud); 301(3) (report on State Board of Education board member expenses); 405 (Department of Education may work with Department of Community Health to secure Medicaid reimbursement); 501 (maintain professional personnel register and certificate revocation/felony conviction files); 803 (intent for Library of Michigan to keep its component programs together); 804 (requiring Library of Michigan to maintain its non-Michigan genealogy and Michigan-specific collections); 901 (notification of Federal and private grants received); 903 (report on cyber schools), and, 904 ($1.9 million appropriation for Federal Education Jobs Fund grant). Senate and House retained all sections with the exception of Section 904, which was only necessary for FY 2010-11. |
| Conference Agreement on Items of Difference |
| 3. Compliance with Race to the Top. Conference concurred with Senate language to require the Department to use Part 1 funds to comply with all State reforms that were part of the RTTT legislation, in the timelines required under statute. (Sec. 229) |
| 4. New Reports. Conference did not include three new reports added by the Senate: two that required the Department to study and report on consolidation of non-instructional services (at the local and State level), and one that required the Department to study the fiscal implications of a State-run health savings account for school employees. (Sections 230, 231, and 232) |
| 5. Posting Expenditures to Web. Conference concurred with House to include a section requiring the posting of departmental expenditures to the web, in a user-friendly format, with slight modifications. (Sec. 207) |
| 6. CEPI and Charter School Office. Conference included two sections of current-year language that were retained by the Senate but deleted by the House. The first section allocates at least 3.5 FTEs and $350,000 to operate a Charter Schools Office and the second requires the Department to work with CEPI on data collection efforts. (Sections 601 and 701) |
| 7. Waiver for Library Operation Hours. Conference did not include House language allowing local libraries to seek a waiver from mandatory hours of operation. (House Sec. 805) |
| 8. FY 2012-13 Appropriations. Conference concurred with Senate to include boilerplate with intent to appropriate the same funding levels of FY 2011-12 into FY 2012-13. (Sec. 1201) |